Machine and Mirror

The Mirror Shatters

22

JAN/14

Rain and fire mingled across the city of Seattle as two figures, battered and bloody glared at each other atop the roof of a hi rise .

“Look around you, you old fool! Everything is ruined!” a thin man shouted. His hair though styled in a wild unruly fashion was incredibly clean and well shaped despite the fact that he was naked, bloody and wielding an impractically long sword, “The people you claimed to be fighting for are dying, this city is burning and worst of all I’ve been trapped in this unbearably static form!”

The old man laughed bitterly, coughing up blood. “It doesn’t matter. You’re done for. Even if I die now, I know you, I know the bizarre laws and pacts you have to follow. The Wiggins boy and his friends foiled you, time and again, and you’ll not be able to stop trying to get your revenge. You’ve lost so much power, they’ll destroy you. And here, in this place, it will be irrevocable. I can die at peace now, knowing that my friends and family will be avenged.”

The naked man stood up straight and smirked. He ran a hand through his feathery hair.

“Die? No… you are not going to die Jasper Cromwell. I may be weakened by my powers are still formidable and I still have allies.” He nodded and a tall well dressed thing appeared behind the old hunter. It was shaped as a man, but had no face. Multiple inky tentacles waved from it’s back. It grabbed Cromwell from behind, pulling a large burlap sack over him.

The Lord of Leaves turned to look down on the city of Seatle, panic stricken and imperiled.

“Take him away, give him to one of those like me, one of the Gentry in Arcadia. I have vengeance to plan.”